Week 25: Stories and an Earnest Scripture

It's Sunday night -- 11:00 p.m. We just got home from a missionary fireside which was in Sequim, about an hour and 45 minutes away. We left at 2:30 this afternoon; we took five Elders up. The fireside was just awesome. The spirit was strong as missionaries sang and shared their testimonies.

I want to share a couple of stories from the fireside. There was a woman there who had been baptized about 22 years ago here in Washington by an Elder Baldwin. Elder Baldwin's daughter, Sister Baldwin just arrived in our mission on March 18 and happened to be in one of the zones invited to sing at the fireside. Sister Baldwin had never met the woman and didn't know she was going to be there. But this woman had heard about Sister Baldwin being in her father's "old" mission field and came looking for her. She presented Sister Baldwin with her father's name tag (she collects missionary name tags) from 22 years ago. It was rather touching to witness this encounter. A coincidence? I don't think so.  

Next story -- told by Sister Weaver as related to her by one of our Spanish-speaking missionaries. This Elder comes from a family that speaks Spanish. In fact, his mother speaks very little English. This mother, as do most missionary mothers, went with her son to help him buy missionary clothes. Of course, they had been told about how rainy and wet it is in Washington. At the shoe store she, in her limited English, told the salesperson that her son needed shoes that "walk on water."  Of course, we chuckled, but you know -- how appropriate that a missionary be compared to "walking on water."  We love these sweet, sweet missionaries.

Last, I'll end with something I learned from the scriptures this week -- something many of you probably have noticed, but it was new to me.  My "discovery" came as a result of reading in Preach My Gospel -- a section on the Nature of the Holy Ghost. In addition to some suggested scriptures, it suggested reading the topics "Earnest" and "Holy Ghost" in the Bible Dictionary. I wondered what "Earnest" had to do with the Holy Ghost. 

Well, earnest is "A pledge or security.... a commercial term denoting the deposit paid by a buyer on entering into an agreement for the purchase of anything." I thought of "Earnest Money" that is often paid as part of an offer to buy real estate. But what does this have to do with the Holy Ghost. So I turned to Paul's use of the word "earnest": "Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." (2 Corinthians 1:21-22, see also 2 Corinthians 5:5, Ephesians 1:14)

So, now back to the Bible Dictionary: "it [earnest as used by Paul] means that the Lord gives us his Holy Spirit in this life as a foretaste of the joy of eternal life. The Spirit is also the Lord's surety that he will fulfill his promise to give eternal life to the faithful."  

I am so grateful that a study of "earnest" was recommended in this study of the Holy Ghost. I've felt the Holy Ghost at work in my life in the form of comfort, peace, joy, and especially as a witness of truth and a witness of Christ. If these workings of the Spirit are God's "earnest money" or assurance of promises that He has and will fulfill, if this is just a "taste" of what's to come,  -- That's enough for me. I'm "sold."  

Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have certainly kept their promises so far. My heart is full of love and gratitude for Them. I believe this is the Spirit speaking -- in earnest. I  trust that They will yet fulfill their promises as I do my part -- in earnest.